The Abbey of San Galgano (Siena)

The Abbey of Saint Galgano was a Cistercian Monastery founded in the valley of the river Merse between the towns of Chiusdino and Monticiano, in the province of Siena, region of Tuscany, Italy.

The abbey formed around the site of the former hermitage of Galgano Guidotti (San Galgano), and construction of the church began around 1220, and was completed some six decades later. The abbey grew in wealth and became allied with the Republic of Siena. Monks from the abbey routinely served as Camarlinghi di Biccherna,[1] i.e. high magistrates of the main financial institution of the republic[2].

Enlarge map Abbey San Galgano

Once, long ago, the community of San Galgano at Montesiepi was the richest and most powerful Cistercian foundation in Tuscany. The greatest builders and sculptors of the Ducento are said to have worked on its great abbey church, and several cardinals left important bequests to the community. However, not very much of this former glory remains: the last group of monks left in 1652, after a series of commendatory abbots had taken anything of value, including the leading that held together the roof of the Gothic abbey church[3].


Abbazia di San Galgano, abbazia a cielo aperto (Chiusdino), Siena	Chapterhouse[1]	Eremo di Montesiepi [1]

Panorama dell'Abbazia di San Galgano (Chiusdino)]	Chiusdino, l'Eremo di Montesiepi (San Galgano)	La suggestiva cupola dell'eremo di Montesiepi (Chiusdino, Siena)
Monks from the abbey routinely served as Camarlinghi di Biccherna

Guido di Graziano, Frate di San Galgano, 1324, Archivio di Stato di Siena	Gilio di Pietro, Biccherna Don Ugo, Monaco di San Galgano, Camarlingo (1258, luglio dicembre) Archivio di Stato di Siena	San Galgano with the sword in the stone, anonymous painter, Archivio di Stato di Siena Museo delle biccherne
Archivio di Stato \| Palazzo Piccolomini Via Banchi di Sotto 52 (btw. Via Banchi di Sotto and Via del Porrione at Via Rinaldini). Head down the corridor off the left of the courtyard, and take the elevator to the fourth floor. Archivio di Stato di Siena \| www.archiviostato.si.it Free admission. Mon–Sat 9am–1pm. Archives open Mon–Fri, 4 hourly viewings: 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30am, and 12:30pm. Bus: A (pink), B, N, 22, 25, 26, or 27. Art in Tuscany \| Sienese Biccherna paintings in the Archivio di Stato di Siena Museo delle Biccherne \| Percorsi tra le tavolette dipinte dell'Archivio di Stato di Siena
[0] Photo Vignaccia76 , unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz „Namensnennung – Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 nicht portiert“ lizenziert. [1] Photo by Adrian Michael , licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. [2] "La Biccherna". www.archiviodistato.siena.it (in Italian). Retrieved 9 February 2020. [3] Anne Dunlop, Once More on the Patronage of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Frescoes at S. Galgano, Montesiepi, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2000, p. 387.